Belarus’ prosecutor labels images of Soviet dissident Hienijuš as “rehabilitation of Nazism”

November 28, Pozirk. The Prosecutor General’s Office classified Christmas decorations with images of Soviet dissident poetess Łarysa Hienijuš as “products related to the rehabilitation of Nazism,” ordering the Kaladnaja Krama to remove the item from sale.

The Office argued that Hienijuš had been convicted of high treason and membership of an anti-Soviet group by a Soviet court in 1949. It claimed that she had authored an appeal to Adolf Hitler during the Second World War, when she lived in Czechoslovakia. “Her activity was closely linked to Nazi propaganda on occupied Belarusian lands,” it added.

“The [Soviet] Supreme Court found that there were no grounds for her exoneration,” it added.

The Office issued the order after the Minsk-based Kaladnaja Krama Christmas shop came under verbal attacks from propaganda show host Ksienija Lebiedzieva and pro-Russian influencer Volha Bondarava for marketing the Hienijuš images. Bondarava reportedly asked police to bring charges against the shop.

Poems by Łarysa Hienijuš (1910–1983) became widely known during a brief period of national revival in Belarus in the 1990s. However, in August 2023 authorities labeled her “Selected Works” as “extremist content.”

From 1935 until her arrest by the Soviet secret service in 1948, Hienijuš served in the exiled government of the Belarusian National Republic. She did time in Soviet labor camps on charges of helping the “international bourgeoisie” and membership in “anti-Soviet organizations,” and was released in 1956. In modern-day Belarus, officials have rejected public appeals for her exoneration. She was buried in Zelva, Hrodna region.

In 2023, officials stealthily removed Hienijuš’s bust from the territory of Zelva’s church.

In 2025, the Parason creative space in Minsk cancelled a memorial evening for the poetess after vocal protests by pro-Russian propagandists.